Advances in Science and Research www.adv-sci-res.net 1992-0628 1992-0636 3 8th EMS Annual Meeting and 7th European Conference on Applied Climatology 2008 2009 10.5194/asr-3-99-2009 http://www.adv-sci-res.net/3/99/2009/ http://www.adv-sci-res.net/3/99/2009/asr-3-99-2009.html http://www.adv-sci-res.net/3/99/2009/asr-3-99-2009.pdf 99 103 2009-05-26 Warning! The use of meteorological information during a flash-flood warning process L. Créton-Cazanave lcretoncazanave@gmail.com Institut de Géographie Alpine, Université de Grenoble, 14bis avenue Marie Reynoard, 38000 Grenoble, France Warning is a key issue to reduce flash floods impacts. But, despite many studies, local and national authorities still struggle to issue good flash floods warnings. We will argue that this failure results from a classical approach of warnings, based on a strict separation between the <i>assessment world</i> and the <i>action world</i>. We will go further than the previous criticisms (Pielke and Carbone, 2002) and show that forecasters, decision makers, emergency services and local population have quite similar practices during a flash-flood warning. Focusing on the use of meteorological information in the warning process, our case study shows that more research about the real practices of stakeholders would be another step towards integrated studies. Becker, H S.: Art worlds, University of California Press, 1984. Carsell, K M., Pingel, N. D., and Ford, D. T.: Quantifying the benefit of a flood warning system, Nat. Hazards Rev., 5, 131–140, 2004. Chateauraynaud, F. and Torny, D.: Les sombres précurseurs: une sociologie pragmatique de l'alerte et du risque, EHESS, 1999. Demuth, J L., Gruntfest, E., Morss, R E., Drobot, S., and Lazo, J K.: WAS*IS: Building a Community for Integrating Meteorology and Social Science, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 88, 1729–1737, http://dx.doi.org/10.1175%2FBAMS-88-11-1729, 2007. Drabek, T E.: Understanding Disaster Warning Responses, The Social Science Journal, 36, 515–523, 1999. Drobot, S. and Parker, D.: Advances and challenges in flash flood warnings, Environmental Hazards, 7, 173–178, 2007. Hornus, H. and Martin, X.: Retour d'expérience sur la vigilance crue et son intégration dans le dispositif de crise lors des événements pluviaux du 6 au 9 septembre 2005 dans le gard et l'hérault., Tech. rep., IGE, MEDD, 2005. McGrenere, J. and Ho, W.: Affordances: Clarifying and evolving a concept, in: Graphics Interface, 179–186, 2000. Montz, B E. and Gruntfest, E.: Flash flood mitigation : recommendations for research and applications, Environmental Hazards, 4, 15–22, 2002. Morss, R E., Wilhelmi, O V., Downton, M W., and Gruntfest, E.: Flood risk, uncertainty, and scientific information for decision making, BAMS, 86, 1593–1601, 2005. Morss, R E., Demuth, J L., and Lazo, J K.: Communicating uncertainty in weather forecasts: A survey of the US public, Wea. Forecast., 23, 974–991, 2008. Nachi, M.: Introduction à  la sociologie pragmatique: vers un nouveau "style" sociologique?, Armand Colin, 2006. Pielke, R. and Carbone, R E.: Weather impacts, forecasts, and policy, BAMS, 83, 393–406, 2002. Sorensen, J H.: Hazard Warning Systems : Review of 20 years of progress, Nat. Hazards Rev., 1, 119–125, 2000. Stewart, T R., Pielke, R J., and Nath, R.: Understanding user decision making and the value of improved precipitation forecasts, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 85, 223–235, 2004.